Upgrade already! If you're still using XP, you're a menace t

[Jack Stoner]

This was posted on the www.tenforums.com It is a reprint from a ZDNet Blog.

Response to my last piece -- "Why Windows must die for the third time" -- was overwhelming. Hundreds of thousands of people read that article, and we had some very spirited talkbacks indeed.

A bunch of you came right out and said it: You don't want to upgrade from XP. You're angry that Microsoft made you upgrade from XP to 7, and 7 to 10. You're angry you need to update software continuously.

A handful of you even suggested inflicting bodily harm on the hard-working programmers that write the software you don't want to upgrade to.

Look, I have brought up many reasons why upgrades are necessary. As my friend from Jersey, Johnny T. likes to say, you gotta do it.

It doesn't matter how many times I techsplain this, because some folks will always refuse to listen. Maybe it's because I write in long form and anything longer than 300 words is considered to be TL;DR these days. That's sad, and a topic for a different day.

Let me say this as simply as possible: If you are still using XP, you are the end-user equivalent of an anti-vaxxer. You are a menace to society and everyone around you. You are a walking malware vector. You should be shipped out to a remote island with no internet access to fend for yourselves so you can't infect anyone else.

And if you are an IT professional who serves in a decision-making capacity with an organization that continues to use XP or Windows Server 2003 and SQL Server 2005, you should be fired. You should never be allowed to work in the computer industry again.

You should not be allowed to touch a computer again either because you too are a menace. You are perpetuating the computer software equivalent of polio and smallpox.

Sounds harsh? You betcha. But over the weekend, the internet got hit with a massive cryptoware malware attack that compromised untold numbers of Windows XP systems. including the UK's National Health Service, who were warned years ago that they were open to exactly the kind of life-jeopardizing malware attack they are now dealing with.

The entire industry was warned. Years earlier, XP was issued its final end-of-life notice by Microsoft in 2014. ZDNet covered this extensively during that period with special features and editorial coverage. We had sermons on the mountaintop even.

The malware attack this weekend was so severe and so widespread -- with systems in 74 countries affected -- that Microsoft took the unusual step of issuing an emergency patch for Windows XP...

[Ian Rae]

Absolutely right. People like XP, myself included, but you can't turn back the clock.

When I was a kid we never locked the house if we went away for less than a week. I liked that too but you can't do it now.

[Charlie McDonald]

WannaCry may serve as the death to XP. Users will cry, but survival of the fittest must apply in a digital jungle.

I do hope its use doesn't become a moral issue like smoking or dancing and the health care costs that come from that, yada yada,
not to mention people who leave their doors unlocked, promoting crime....

But speaking of that: it was announced on national news that the attack was on the vulnerability of Microsoft systems,
that legendary giant back door that conspiracy theorists say the government loves, making it easier to spy on us.
Is this the beginning of Windows 279, or a mass migration to Mac?

[Dave Potter]

This was posted on the www.tenforums.com It is a reprint from a ZDNet Blog.

Thanks for posting that, Jack. I probably need to get in the habit of reading ZDNet more often. That article is timely and appropriate.

I get that there are isolated situations in which XP lives on, totally isolated from the internet, to run software/hardware that won't operate on newer OSes, but those scenarios are rare. For the rest of us, the sensible thing to do is stay current, if for no other reason than protection against the bottom-feeders among us who derive pleasure from inflicting crippling malware on us.

[Chuck Miller]

The sensible thing to do is leave windows forever. Microsoft knows how to write a better operating system. Years ago the marketed Xenix, a Unix clone for business purposes. I think they licensed the Unix source code to do it. Windows has never been a secure operating system, and apparently they don't want it to be. They have had 30 years to make it secure, but still haven't done it.

If you are a techy, look to the Linuxs and the BSDs. If you aren't Mac is also very good.

[Jack Stoner]

We can argue forever on what OS is best or better. This is not about that, its about users that still have Windows XP.

As a retired LAN/WAN Network Manager, I had some systems that ran XENIX (a version of Unix) and they were a headache.

[Larry Carlson]

***quietly looks behind him at the XP machine on the other desk***
Why am I beginning to feel like that monster in the "Aliens" movie?...

[Jason Putnam]

Just a heads up for those who are still using Xp. Microsoft released the Wanacry patch for XP. It's available on their site.

[Wiz Feinberg]

***quietly looks behind him at the XP machine on the other desk***
Why am I beginning to feel like that monster in the "Aliens" movie?... :roll:

And the computer looked back at you and said: I'm sorry Larry, but I can't let you do that."

[Erv Niehaus]

I'm a menace!

[Dave Potter]

I'm a menace!

You're cordially invited to join the rest of us in the 21st century.

[Chuck Miller]

Jack, not arguing. It's not about better, its about security.

Chuck

[Dave Potter]

Jack, not arguing. It's not about better, its about security.

PMFJI.

Obviously so. But there's no "free lunch". If the "security" option being offered poses challenges, involving learning curves as well as functionality, it gets more complicated.

For those of us not determined to throw Microsoft under the bus, for whatever reason, and who don't have any appetite for "alternative" OSes, with the learning curve they involve, and their notorious functionality shortfalls, it gets more complicated. I, for one, just don't get warm fuzzies thinking about how I'd dump Windows, and be faced with the potential for lack of drivers to run my hardware, and a foreign user interface.

Those relatively few of you who are so adamantly opposed to anything Microsoft has to offer seem willing to accept the sacrifices required to divest yourselves from MS. I'm not; I own expensive software designed to run under Windows, and I'll stay the course until MS makes doing it untenable (as in "subscription").

[Tony Prior]

I still have an XP machine running, but it's not connected to the internet and has not been for years.

So am I a menace and not a menace at the same time ?

[DG Whitley]

No, you are Tony doing what Tony does......have fun.

I would say as long as it works for you, keep on going. I am one of those who think Win 95 OSR2 was one of the best OS releases ever. But who am I to say.

My 2 cents FWIW.